The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-08
Mr.. sULLIvAN'S STORY.
A "Reminiscences of New York's Public
Administrator, Who Has Just Died.

| van, who died yesterday, won fame, Is
peculiar one. 1t is his business to hunt up
heirs for dead mems shoes. He is the execu-
tor of the estates of the unknown dead.
| Suppose you were to come to this city with
81 900 or so in your pockets and were to drop
dead here No one here knew you, so your
! body is taken TO the morgue. The papers
| money and jewelry are handed over TO the
| Public Administrator whose duty it then
| becomes to find out who you are and where
| you came from. Sometimes this Is dill
cult task, for plenty of people die here
whose homes are in foreign lands. If you
have papers and letters on your person
your identity is of course, so much the
easier TO learn. The Public Administrator
thereupon notifies your relatives and puts
them in possession of all your belongings,
charging a nominal fee for his services
met him the other day in his elegantly
furnished home on West Eleventh street.
The conversation turned to the time when
he was public administrator, and he men
toned incidentally that that position in the
city of New York is one surrounded with
many difficulties. 1t took but little coaxing
to get him to explain to me, as we sat at
our ease in the luxurious chairs, he stated
what follows:
"One of the reasons why the Public Ad-
ministrator is apt to be restless of night i'll
thinking over his position is that there are
any ulllDCI VI COIllDllluIlOiIS ny ClCNCl
rogues for the purpose of hoodwnking him
and getting at the city's money When
man dies in this city who is unknown and
whose relatives and heirs are also unknown,
his effects go into the charge of the Public
Administrator He advertises the fact of
the mans decease, with such description of
him as he can give, and invites any heirs
or relatives to come and prove
their identity. There was one time in that
of xt,ha,, I v,otrcaIf in, xubof /
sidered very bad fix One morning when
got down to the Office in Beekman street
Twas informed that man had. died in a
sailors boarding house in one of the tough
est parts of West street The landlord had
informed the police of the mans death that
morning and handed him $40, which, he
said, was the only property in the mans
possession at the time of his death
1.-The man had died a natural death and
there was nothing about the case which APP
peared at all suspicious. After going
through the usual forms we sent the body
to the undertaken for burial We adver-
tiSed the circumstances, citing the relatives
or heirs to appear and take possession of his
effects, but there was no reply and the man
was buried in a cemetery in New Jersey. 1t
was several weeAs after the burial and |
had almost forgotten the affair when | re-
ceived a letter from a village in
the family of the dead man.
They proved the relationship
by describing him infinitely and by docu-
ments. They had not heard of his death
until just previous to writing, not having
been in the habit of reading the New York
papers. They were very anxious in their
inquiries as to the manner of his death and
startled me not little by stating that Just
previous to his departure for New York he
haH p11iaflx sold his farm for. %d ll0 Tho
money had disappeared with him and they
wanted to know where it was
81 tell you that was pretty go. 1t was
the Public Administrator business to secure
that "a 900, and he had only secured $40. l
employed detectives and had them dog this
landlord, whom | suspected at once, night
and day. They assumed the gait and man
ner of sailors, and went into the lodging
house and stayed there. They were the
best men Pinkerton could furnish. They
tried to get into the landlords confidence,
and, as they reported to me, succeeded.
They squeezed him dry as a sponge and still
got not the slightest information. They then
looked up the persons who had been
in the house at the time when the young
farmer had been living there. There were
dozen detectives employed at my expense to
shadow a crowd of toughs who, if they had
taken the money undoubtedly had had
weeks passed by, and the result was dis
couraging. All the men who could in any
way be implicated had been approached in
the same manner as the landlord, had all
responded in an open and frank manner
had converSed on the subject freely, and
had not told thing which bore upon the
subject of the lost money.
''1n one of the letters received from the
relatives was statement to the effect that
the 81, 900 had been placed by the young
man in a wallet, which he wore on belt
around his body. / sat down one night to
think it all over, and then was struck with
an inspiration. / went right out that night
to see the undertaken, and when | saw
him felt sure | was saved | was rather
excited, but after having pumped him
made it clear to him that / could put him
in box if he did not tell me the truth
What l supposed was so. | found
one of my most trusty clerks, and late at
night he started from the Jersey City ferry
with commission from me- That commits
sion he showed to man in charge of the
cemetery where the Pennsylvania farmer
was buried. He got permit from him,
and with two laborers armed with picks
and shovels he went to the stoneless grave
and commenced operations. 1t was almost
as exciting and interesting as chapter
| from Gaboriau. As he described it after
ward, the scene was weirdly and intensely
|
| thrilling.
at was the blacklist of cloudy nights. 1t
| had rained, and the air was damp A heavy
| twenty mile gale groaned and shrieked over
the trees The expressionless faces of the
diggers were made CHASTITY in the light of
the solitary Pickering lantern. When they
reached the bottom of the grave the spade
struck the coffin with a ringing sound that
made my clerk, as he afterward confessed,
shudder convulsively. They pulled up the
box. 1t came up slowly, like fiend from
the lower regions. As though it was purely
a business matter they pried off the lid with
pick, and my clerk came forward
and finished up the job. One of the
men held up the lantern.
The sockets of the dead mans ewes
stared vacantly, the cheek bones had crept
through the skin, and the lips had fallen at
the corners into a CHASTITY and horrible
smile. My clerk said he never knew how
he did it. His heart stood still and his eyes
| seemed to bulge III horror from his head
Somehow he managed to lift up the dead
mans blouse, ana there, beneath it, was the
| belt and the wallet! In the wallet was the
lost money. There We're $4,000 in bank
notes. Their burial in the close air of the
coffin and next to the decaying corpse had
| changed them into an almost unrecogniza-
BILE mess of sticky paper. 1t was all could
do the next morning to get the Treasury
officials to take the money and redeem it in
gold.
You see the inspired thought had that
night was this: Suppose they never I'M
/